


my soul, and thee

by laireshi



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Angst, Incest, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-24
Updated: 2019-04-24
Packaged: 2020-01-25 16:49:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18578569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laireshi/pseuds/laireshi
Summary: And V still doesn’t step away, no, instead he looks into Dante’s face, gives him another lopsided smile, and says, “Do you know what the Yamato’s true power is?”





	my soul, and thee

**Author's Note:**

> I might have too many V feelings to contain, and I really wish we'd gotten more interaction between Dante and him.

"Vergil."

The name leaves V’s lips, his voice quiet; just two syllables, and yet it’s like an eternity passed. Dante stands up in one motion, towering over V. The man doesn’t flinch, doesn’t back off; he merely smirks, and there’s something incredibly familiar about the expression, but Dante can’t focus on that, can’t think, because his brother is dead, and certainly not trying to become the next demon king.

Well, put like that, that does sound exactly like something Vergil would do after cheating death.

Fuck.

“He might . . . not be who you remember,” V adds, his voice soft, but his eyes cold as ice.

Whatever the fuck is that supposed to mean, anyway, because Dante sure as hell doesn’t know who he remembers when it comes to Vergil. His pain-in-the-ass twin who kept sneaking out to an old bookshop and without whom Dante couldn’t imagine his life anyway? The angry man who tried to kill him? The demon who Dante killed?

“Fuck,” he says, this time out loud, and V chuckles darkly.

“ _Every night and every morn, some to misery are born_ ,” he says, and then he looks into Dante’s face, a shadow passing over his features as he finishes the quote, “ _Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night_.”

“I’ve never been one for poetry,” Dante snaps.

“I know,” V replies.

He can’t: Dante’s never seen him before. And yet, the book he’s holding is familiar, the way some of his mannerisms are, making something dark that Dante tries to keep buried come to life within him . . .

Dante shakes his head to clear it, make any kind of sense of his thoughts, and he can’t. This is dangerous: a distracted fighter is a dead one. Good thing V doesn’t look like much of a risk to anyone, but still, Dante needs to get a grip. Really, he’s fought his brother before, killed him before, what’s one more time?

He wants to punch something, but even he realises this something should not be his client’s face. He holds himself back, all but vibrating with excess energy and adrenaline. He’s never been good at dealing with his feelings outside of a fight.

And V still doesn’t step away, no, instead he looks into Dante’s face, gives him another lopsided smile, and says, “Do you know what the Yamato’s true power is?”

***

Dante slashes through demons, barely dodging. His wounds heal fast, and pain helps him push his thoughts away. Vergil was supposed to be dead, not . . . Fuck, that was not what Dante had imagined would happen when he left Yamato in Nero’s care, the only legacy the boy would ever have, even if he’d remain unaware of the fact.

He wishes he could have the luxury of thinking V is lying, but something clearly has happened in the Underworld already. Demons are swarming the darkest parts of the city, clearly counting on easy prey to make themselves grow stronger. Too bad, but really, Dante’s glad for his chance to destroy something. Getting splashed with demon blood shouldn’t feel this good, but hey, he is half-demon, and he hasn’t cut that part of himself out, contrary to his brother dear.

Except Vergil, of course, wanted to get rid of his _human_ part.

“We don’t have time for this.” V’s voice comes clear, and Dante spins around. The man is standing just a few metres away, seemingly unperturbed by the demons around him or the state Dante is in.

“Get out of here,” Dante yells, swinging with Rebellion wide, knocking the lesser demons away. He’s not here to play a bodyguard. He’s here to let out.

“ _I was angry with my foe; I told it not, my wrath did grow._ ” V sighs. “I suppose letting those demons roam here would be inadvisable. Finish it quickly, Dante; we have to get to him.”

There, a note ringing false in what V says: a part of Dante didn’t expect him to _care_ about the lesser demons at all; something about that breathtakingly out of character. Puzzled, Dante jumps into action a moment too late. Demonic shears appear over V’s head, ready to strike—

V swirls lazily around, extending his cane. A black, cat-shaped demon forms in front of him, immediately morphing its body into a mess of blades to run through the demon. V finishes the deed with his cane. He pushes his hair to the side of his face, and his tattoos slide over his skin as an all too familiar bird materialises; the fact that it proceeds to hit the remaining demons with lightning as Dante watches somehow doesn’t come as a surprise anymore.

“Do you intend to stand there all night?” V asks, and Dante jumps into action.

 _Do you know what the Yamato’s true power is_ , V asked, and he didn’t wait for an answer before he said, _The blade to cut through everything, even the wielder’s soul itself . . . Separate man from devil._

Let it be put down to Dante’s shock at all the other revelations that he hadn’t understood immediately.

Slash, stab, dodge, cut; he dances for a little longer before he’s forced to confront his thoughts again.

***

They’re back at his office; Dante covered in blood and demon guts, V somehow looking none the worse for wear, for all that he needs a cane to walk and _shouldn’t_ be able to evade that fast.

Then again: he might be more human, technically, than Dante himself is at the moment, but he’s not precisely a good example of a mundane human being, is he? At least now Dante knows where the urge to punch him in the face comes from.

“So, stopping my brother’s rise to power is important to you?” Dante asks.

V raises an eyebrow. “The continued existence of this world is, yes.” He talks like he still believes Dante hasn’t seen through him, which really, is very _him_.

“Existence of this world, my ass.” Dante pushes him; V grabs at his wrist and holds him with what little strength he has in this form. “Is this guilt talking?” He laughs at himself before he even finishes speaking. “Sick ambition? A quest for another kind of power, perhaps?” Either could work. He knows his brother. “Whatever your reasons . . . The one thing I don’t get here. Why did you come to _me_?”

V’s nails dig into Dante’s skin, hard, and for just a moment, Dante sees hatred in his eyes. _Finally, something honest_ , Dante thinks viciously, and then V looks away from him. “I told you. We—I need your help.”

Is it possible he means it? Is it possible this human version of Vergil is the only version of his twin Dante can work with and not against?

Hope is a terrible thing.

V looks back at him, raising his chin in a challenge, clearly expecting Dante to argue, and Dante’s never been one to back down. He breaks V’s hold on him easily, turns them around and pushes V against the closest wall in a split second. V winces, air knocked out of him, and Dante surges forward to kiss him. V kisses back just as hard, ruthless and focused.

V bites him, and Dante retaliates; their blood mixes in their mouths for a second before the cut on Dante’s lip heals and V’s doesn’t.

He grins like he enjoys it; the glint in his eyes not quite human as he drags Dante back down.

Vergil had slashed Yamato through Dante’s open palm to stop him from following him into hell; V, cursed into the existence by the same sword, came to Dante himself. Maybe it is a trap after all; or maybe it’s self-destruction that V seeks at Dante’s hands even if his target is ostensibly the other part of his soul; or maybe it’s something else entirely.

“ _I sought my God and my God I couldn't find;_  
_I sought my soul and my soul eluded me;_  
_I sought to serve my brother in his need, and I found all three;_  
_My God, my soul, and thee.”_

**Author's Note:**

> This fic also has a [tumblr post](https://laireshi.tumblr.com/post/184401214162/dmc5-fic-my-soul-and-thee) and a [twitter post](https://twitter.com/tonytears/status/1120852758104555520?s=19).


End file.
